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Why People Find Clowns Frightening
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Does a chill go down your spine when you see the smiling face of a clown? If so, you’re not alone. Recently, scientists surveyed 987 people and found that more than half had a fear of clowns.
To figure out why, the team asked the study participants who found clowns scary to rank different factors that influenced their fear. “What surprised me most was that the fear of clowns was not largely based on having a frightening experience with one,” says Philip Tyson. He’s a psychologist at the University of South Wales in the United Kingdom. Instead, fear stemmed from clowns’ appearance, behavior, and negative portrayals in movies and other media.
Study participants were asked to rank how much certain factors influenced their fear of clowns, on a scale of 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree). The graph shows the average ranking five factors received. Which had the highest ranking? The lowest?
SOURCE: FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY (2023)